The Future of AI in Education

The Future of AI in Education

 

AI has become part of human life and has been used in education. I read two articles from Chen (2023) and Milberg (2024) that discuss AI adoption in education. Both of the articles explain the benefits and risks that AI might have in education. Chen (2023), for instance, in his article describes the potential of AI in education, such as enhancing the quality of assessment, boosting students' confidence, and easing teachers' work. However, Chen further says that challenges also lie ahead upon adopting this technology into education. As stated by Milberg (2024), those risks can be mitigated by considering several aspects, which include teaching AI skills to students and teachers, ensuring equal access to technology, and providing necessary support. 

However, instead of discussing the future of AI in education in general, I will focus on the future of teachers and students within the AI era. AI will not replace teachers' positions in education, regardless of how fast the AI is growing. Borrowing the idea from Walsh (2018), even though AI is a state-of-the-art technology that might be able to work beyond human power, it has no feeling, will not work, or will only initiate working if we ask them to do so. In education, feelings, emotions, and connections between teachers and students are necessary ingredients and part of the learning process that help shape students into who they are. Therefore, instead of replacing teachers, AI in education will be a 'friend' for teachers and students, a complementary tool to boost the quality of teaching and learning activities to educate students. 

With the idea above in mind, educational institutions are working on embracing, adopting, or adapting AI for educational purposes, both for pedagogical purposes and other clerical needs. The future AI in education will be part of academic institutions and evolve with schooling. Instead of prohibiting students from using AI, teachers will embed them for teaching purposes and guide students on using AI appropriately. Students will not be afraid of using them. There will also be a flourishing stage where opportunities for professional development related to AI for teaching and learning are widely available. Stakeholders involved, such as policymakers, AI developers, and teachers, will have created policies, such as AI educational ethics, that provide AI's rules of thumb, do and don't in education. In addition, instructional designers will collaborate with AI developers to develop specific AI tools for educational purposes. In other words, the engagement of AI in education will be more accepted and expected.   

We are working to be there, get better, and hope to settle. Like the Internet, where people feared that its presence might ruin education due to cheating or other academic misconduct, almost all educational institutions now provide facilities to support education. We are more confident in using the Internet in education and will be with AI as well. To achieve that goal, as stated by Walsh (2019), we might work on regulating technology companies and teaching about AI (Milberg, 2024) to teachers and students so they can be literate.  

How can we guarantee this future is inclusive and benefits all students equally? 

I borrow the ideas from Milberg (2024) that AI can create personalized learning content and experience. With this capability, the content and experience in learning can be adjusted to students' needs. We need to figure out how to make the AI do so. That ability is only one example of the many strengths that AI has. Again, will we be there to create equal education? The word 'equal' here is tricky as everyone has different standards. We hope there will be movement on creating equality in access to technology for everyone, regardless of their background. The aim is to give everyone access to AI.    

 

References 

Chen, C. (2023, March 9). AI will transform teaching and learning: Let’s get it right. Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-will-transform-teaching-and-learning-lets-get-it-right

Milberg, T. (2024, April 28). The future of learning: How AI is revolutionizing education 4.0. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/04/future-learning-ai-revolutionizing-education-4-0/

Walsh, T. (2018, November 26). AI and Ethics. TEDxBlighStreet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsQApXQGsI